Disney Dvds Seized From Piracy Suspect

DVDs of the Walt Disney movie Aladdin and other titles were among items seized in the Kissimmee-area hotel room of a major movie piracy suspect wanted in Los Angeles.

U.S. deputy marshals arrested Johnny Ray Gasca, 35, Tuesday afternoon at the Travelers Inn in Osceola County. Boxes of DVDs, DVD cases and a computer were later seized by Osceola County deputy sheriffs.

Gasca was listed by the FBI as one of the most wanted fugitives in the Los Angeles area after he failed to show up for the start of his trial in January 2004.

At an initial appearance Tuesday in federal court in Orlando, Gasca opted to be returned to California for a preliminary hearing. A judge ordered him held without bail at the Seminole County Jail in the interim.

Michael Bunk, a U.S. deputy marshal and supervisor in the Orlando office, said Gasca could return to California within two weeks.

Gasca -- who is suspected of sneaking into advance movie screenings with a camera in hand -- once boasted of earning up to $4,000 a week by selling bootleg copies on the Internet.

Inside his hotel room, authorities seized four cases of DVDs, five cases of DVD covers and jackets and a Sony Vaio computer system.

When he was arrested, Gasca was running a special software program on his computer known as Shrink. The program allows large-data DVD videos to be compressed and burned onto a recordable DVD disc.

Osceola County sheriff's Maj. Ron Burnett said his agency will store the DVDs and analyze them to see if they may have been sold locally.

"We just assisted with the arrest," Burnett said. "We'll have to do some follow-ups."

It's unknown how long Gasca was in Central Florida, but Bunk said the U.S. Marshals Service arrested him after receiving a tip.